Sports Ball 2008

Last night was Sports Ball 2008, the closing event for NTU sports camp. It was meant for the freshmen and seniors in the camp committee. We were from the programmers committee and were considered as 'expired'. Few weeks back, Cui Mei told me a few seniors were thinking of forming a table for this ball. I told her to count me in if they were going to do it. It was like deja vu. Except for the few seniors whom I know, everyone else was practically a stranger.

Good to see that the madness is still there in sports camp. I like to see them wild and mad but it doesn't mean that I am one of them. I prefer to watch and observe on the sides. One of the groups were on enough to dress up as cabaret dancers. Even the guys were wearing tubes, stockings and those fluffy neon skirts. I knew they were there because I was peeing at the urinal pit beside 2 of them.

Seems like every table had a bottle of vodka. Ours was vodka mandarin and I was some hope that it might change my opinion of vodka. After the first shot, my hopes were dashed. Think I will only fall in love with it if it was a real bottle of orange juice. I didn't ration my drinks too well last night and was stoned before I realised it. I barely remembered much of my talk last night or the names of the new programmers I just met. Everything felt dreamy and exaggerated.

I did remember talking to this programmer, telling her I don't know who she is.
she: actually I read your blog.
me: huh? What makes you want to read about my stuff?
she: because you write factual stuff
me: *too stoned to process those words* nvm. cheers.

I was a little on the ball yesterday, finding reasons to toast with people. That is so not me because I am always finding reason to avoid toasting the first place. Once I hit my limit, Colin Two takes over and I am out of control. At least I managed to eat till the end of the dinner including the dessert.

Was really wasted yesterday. Biggest mistake was not drinking enough liquids to neutralise the alcohol. I had more neat shots of vodka than tea. That is asking for trouble. I managed to stay alive and joined those who survived for supper at the hawker beside le meridien. I was still alive but I knew I drank more than I should. Took the night rider bus with Alfie and Jingru but I got off at Guillemard area cos I needed to throw up. Cabbed back in the end. I crashed onto bed the moment I got back, socks were still on.

Woke up this morning with my head spinning. It was fished up. It has been so long since I had a serious hangover. I couldn't go to work today and luckily Hakim was able to help look after the shop within such short notice. Spent the day at home getting some rest and helping dad to pack the store room.

It was fun last night meeting up with the seniors and some of the new programmers. All was good except for the drinking part.

Pictures:

The ball at Le Meridien with the theme "Shanghai Nights".




The shot glasses.


Programmers getting wasted.


Mabel's puke looked like soggy cornflakes in milo. It was gross.


Back in the hotel room.


Some of the survivors, Jingru, Cui Mei, Adrian and myself.


This was what my puke was made up of.

NEWDC / NEVC Prize Giving Day 2008

Went to attend NEWDC / NEVC ceremony yesterday morning organised by and held at Victoria School. Was there as a guest to present some awards. The students there to receive the awards are from primary school. They are so small and adorable! Nothing too difficult, I just have to smile more, shake hands and present the awards. It was more difficult to wake up early on a Saturday morning.

I like one of the top 10 video entries with the message of staying away from gangs and fights. The gang fight scene was filmed in a multi storey carpark. I am surprised that nothing much has changed since my secondary school days. There was a time when I went to witness a negotiation talk in a multi storey carpark when I was young. This senior guy wasn't very well liked because he had a stuck up face with an arrogant attitude. My friend, a girl didn't like his face but she had strong backing and 'connections'. A meetup was arranged and it was negotiated to 3 slaps from her and he will be left alone. I pitied him. Anyway, that was the past and I heard my ex secondary has changed so much for the better since then.

One of the performances during the ceremony was the school choir who sang "when you believe". It was an awkward moment with scene flashes of myself flipping tutorial papers and past year exam papers to prepare for my exam the next morning. For some papers, I literally played that song in the morning before leaving hall. Everything is just a phase and I am glad I'm passed it.

After the ceremony, there were refereshments for everyone at the canteen. Had a small talk with the principal who had difficulty trying to understand about how much yo-yos have changed. Figured that the best was to show him.. took out mine from the bag and did a few tricks. He was quick to ask: "Can you do an impromptu show now?" I replied: "Ermm.. I guess so?" He got quite enthu, went up the bench where the boys were seated and made an announcement. He is quite "on the ball" for a principal. Then I just did my stuff which Hans has well prepared me for. Just the usual simple tricks.

Thanks to Jon for inviting me to the event. It was my first time but it was an interesting experience because there was zero pressure.

New toy

After much hesitation, using spreadsheets to compare my expenses with my current service provider - Starhub, I decided to switch to Singtel.

Thanks to Melvin for helping me to get the queue number earlier otherwise I would have to wait for a damn long time at Comex. Bought the white 16Gb version for $508 and signed up for the iFlexi Value plan ($56/mth).

Violently syncing my data over now. Blog more about it later.

"Flying Emu" + 1

A month ago, I posted about our new coldheartmission project.

The project's new codename is "Flying Emu". It must have came about somehow from all the lecture notes of electronic circuits screwing Han's brain.

There were 2 applicants who emailed us their interest in being part of the project. Jacqueline was the first person who wrote to us but we had to hold off the interview due to my recent travel adventures. We just met up with Jac yesterday and after pitching our idea with my abstract drawing, she agreed to come on board!

I tried to talk to several people about the idea, majority said it wouldn't work. Negative replies are just what we need.

Awesome.

To the other applicant, you will be hearing from us very shortly! Just to let you know that we appreciate the cover letter that you sent us. =)

Hot ride

Arranged with Vince yesterday to ride this morning at Somerset skate park. Woke up at 7 and it was raining heavily, went back to sleep. In the afternoon, he smsed me saying that they are already in town. Dug the boxes in the shop and was lucky to find one spare top (singlet). Met them in the afternoon. It was freakin hot!!

It was a good ride and to meet new riders, Vince came with his friends, Jun Ming and Melvin.

Attempted to hop up a ledge about handlebar height. The last time I could hop that height and higher was few years ago in my last video. Even when I started riding again few months ago, I don't have the balls to even try that height. Just to clear head tube height, I had to hesitate for a while. I did go up eventually but it was sloppy and missed by a few inches. Doesn't matter, just need to overcome the fear of pulling the front, I've cleared higher than that before so just need to practice and get it back. Thanks to Vince for helping me to take the photos, needed the photo to remind me how much I missed.

Thanks for the ride guys!




Left - Vince
Right - Jun Ming

Zelene vs Shrek

When I first got this hairband, Zelene was still quite young and reluctant to put on the hairband. She was afraid of it. Earlier on I was looking for stuff in my drawer, she saw the hairband and reached out for it. She even allowed me to put on for her! Told her to go show my sis and my mum. She seemed quite proud parading it!

She has been staying with us for the past few days cos she doesn't have school due to hand foot mouth disease. Will be giving her beats recognition sessions (clapping according to the beats of music at different bpm), training her to be a cheongster in future when she go pubbing or krubbing (according to Jac). Gotta start them young.

To the one

The one in the train.
The one on the streets.
The one in the bus.
The one in the foodcourt.
The one who walked past.
The one in the queue.
So?
Do we really have to approach the one?
Direct initiation?
Prevented by culture and upbringing.
So we are restricted to the ones within our social circle's circle.
Continue to wait for another one.

MYYC 08

Photos from last weekend in KL.

Took the morning coach on Friday. Was fully prepared for the long bus ride. Have loaded my iPod touch with TV shows and brought a book a long. I read the book instead. Read, power nap, read, power nap, read and soon I arrived in KL. I prefer to buy tickets for better coaches to KL, it cost about $15 more but I can rest or read better on the bigger seats. Its more worth it in terms of productivity.

M-Yo club was kind to provide hotel rooms for the judges at Dorsett Regency hotel. After checking in, I went for late lunch. Due to the rain, I just settled for the nearest mamak store and was fortunate to have one of the best murtabak ever. Every part was just packed with meat!

The rain didn't stop for quite sometime, which made it difficult for me to find a streetside barber. I walked endlessly and found hiding in a small lane off Bukit Bintang.


Melvin had class in the morning so he came by the afternoon coach. Hooked up with him and brought him to dry the beef noodles. He said it was "violent" which means good in his lingo.


After beef noodles, I brought him further down Tong Shin to try the wanton mee. The stall was still setting up and there were already people seated around us waiting. The uncle of the stall told us it will take about 40mins to be ready. I am used to them taking a long time to prepare. I was satisfied with it but Mel prefers the violent beef horfun. Our stomachs were quite bloated by then, went for a short massage just across the beef horfun.. so that we can eat it again after the massage. 3 bowls in a night, now thats violent!


When I woke up the next morning (Sat), the SG players have arrived. They were Iskandar, Junjie, Qingwen and Firdaus. Andrew was also in KL but he wanted to go luging first with his own friends. We had fun just chilling, talking nonsense and laughing at the breakfast hardcore movies. Think it was about 9am on Sunday and the noise woke me up, one TV channel was showing Final Destination. Can't remember if it was part 3 or 4. I've never watched the movie before but all I can remember about it is just blood and gore. The movie was halfway through when I woke up. After this movie, it was House of Wax, more violent scenes and gore again. What a way to start our Sunday.


Ian came too! Dimi weighing 115kg tried to give him and affectionate bear hug.


I was judging most of the time so I don't have photos of the competitors.

Some random shots. Left, Ryan's collection.
Right, like how Andrew described him, he looked like a caveman going around rubbish bins digging for cans but his camera is damn 'violent'. To me, he looked an undercover agent sent to Al Qaeda camps. Apparently he is some well known pro photographer.


There was a small yo-yo exhibit which was nicely done up.


After the main competition, one of the fringe events was the Duncan Open Internation (DOI), participants can be anyone who is not a finalist in the main divisions. Rule is to perform a 2mins freestyle. The attraction was the winner will win a Freehand MG worth $400 USD. Junjie (from Sg) did a clean and entertaining freestyle, winning himself the MG. I am proud of him.


Other random shots.
Left, Ryan, a enthusiastic player and leader of the yo-yo club in Sarawak.
Right, Jon, myself and Ewin. They are the Malaysian Team Spinworkx Xtreme members. Khai Boon is missing from the photo.


Group photo of the Singaporean players who went up to KL.


Thanks to the committee for making MYYC a blast. Hope to see them again next year!

Djan's new Remixes (Aug 2008)

Djan just released several cool remixes on his site. Needless to say, they are awesome.

Here are his new remixes:

Every Breath Of Bleeding Love You Chase (Djan’s Madmix)
- Can you imagine The Police (Sting) "Every Breadth You Take" mashed up with Leona Lewis "Bleeding Love"?

Apologize 2008 (Djan's re-Edit Mix)
- Re-edited to make it even better than it is.

Last Christmas 2008 (Djan In-The-House Mix)
- house version

Last Christmas ‘08 (Nad-Trix B’day Mix)
- Remixed specially for his buddy Nado a.k.a DJ Nad-Trix for his 31st birthday.

Enjoy the remixes!

1st Generation 2nd Hand iPhone 8Gb for sale (SOLD)

update:
iPhone sold on 27 Aug 08.

Jill (my godmother) is selling her iPhone.

Specs:
- 2nd generation
- 8 Gb
- used 7mths, well taken care of, in super mint condition
- box included

Price: $350

If interested, please sms me at 90295682.

Imagine Me by Kirk Franklin

Haven't bought new songs in a while. Happy with a new purchase by Kirk Franklin. Adam, one of the finalist in MYYC08 used this song for his freestyle.

Click on the link below to preview the song in iTunes Store.

Imagine Me by Kirk Franklin

Art of stealth

It was after MYYC and I had a meeting with Ewin and Jon at Times Square Starbucks. We were seated in the individual comfy sofas facing each other in a T shape. My timbuk2 was my chair and my 75 litre karrimor backpack (the big ass one) was beside it.

After our discussion, got up and realised my backpack disappeared. Seriously man, WTF?!?! Its not a freaking handbag or paperbag. It is so big and it was beside me all the time.. Thats why I didn't bathe and have no change of clothes last night or today. I felt sticky, dirty and shitty.

The consolation part is all the important stuff are in my timbuk2. My gadgets, passport and stuff are all in that. I am just unsatisfied that it can be stolen even if it was beside me and even if it was in someone's line of sight. (Ewin, don't worry! Not blaming you.) Ultimately, it was my fault, it should have been in my line of sight instead.

So unfortunate to lose so much stuff recently. First lost took place in Taiwan after their nationals, it was the pen my sister gave me last christmas.

When I checked in to the guesthouse last night. Ewin saw me online and told me that they were quite sure they found the suspect cos he meets the same description that the starbuck's staff gave. When the staff at starbucks saw this Arabic guy took my bag, he thought it was his bag. My friends tried to follow the guy but lost him eventually. I am surprised that of so many guys there, no one actually informed me about it! KJ snapped a photo of the suspect's back view. It is the photo in the previous post.

I tried to recall the items that were stolen:
1. Karrimor Cougar Backpack (60-85l)
2. Raider EX x 2 (brand new)
3. Spinworkx t-shirt
4. Duncan t-shirt
5. Abi-T (white)
6. black berms
7. underwear
8. socks
9. Macbook Pro charger
10. Nikon battery charger
11. iPod cable
12. Sony ericsson charger
13. Deuter toiletries bag
14. toiletries
15. Suntec City Swimming pool access card
16. PADI diving license
17. Book (4 hour work week)
18. Reebok windbreaker/raincoat

The bag itself and the chargers are the most expensive. I bought the same book back in Sg today to help relieve my emo-ness.

I wanted to take the bus last night even though I've book a room last night and the coach ticket for this morning but the coaches were full at pasar rayat. I didn't want to stay on because I can't read my book and I can't use my laptop for long without the power adaptor.

Good lesson learnt. I know what additional stuff to prepare the next time I travel and I invite these idiots to steal my stuff again.

I still give credit to that asshole for taking my stuff even when it was beside me. He was just being very good at what he is good at and he proved his point. A pity for him that he didn't choose the smaller timbuk2 bag where all the gold is at.

Don't worry about me. Nothing worst can happen so it will be all good from now on till I hit the cosine wave again. If my story can help the rest to learn from my experience then it is worthwhile.

Never assume.

Never take things for granted.

Are you sure this is the best way?

I had a bad streak of luck since yesterday evening till this evening. Talk about yesterday another time.

I am feeling dirty, haven't bathed or changed my clothes since yesterday morning. Initially plan was to go straight home after I return from KL this afternoon. Arrived in SG at 2 plus and decided to go back to shop to tally the weekend's accounts. By the time I was done with everything, it was already 6.30pm and I was late for a dinner appointment. Took a cab from Suntec and wanted to head home to bathe first.

If you are a taxi driver and you need to send someone from Suntec to Pasir Ris and especially it is 6.30pm on a fishing workday. Would you go by KPE > PIE or ECP all the way? The answer was obvious to me for someone who doesn't drive often. Was reading my book and when I looked up the cab was already in KPE (Kallang Paya Lebar Expressway). When the cab came out of the tunnel, it was obvious that I'm fished up after seeing the traffic jam.

Me: Uncle, can you please drive out of the jam to the nearest exit?
Driver: huh? *sounding surprise* which exit?
Me: I can't go on in the jam like that. Just go to the nearest mrt.
Driver: Ok, paya lebar..
Me: Why didn't you go by ECP?
Driver: huh? Err.... *stutter*... This is supposed to be the way to drive to Pasir Ris...
Me: *yes maybe but definitely not during peak hour on a weekday*

I kept quiet all the way and any more words from me will result in giving him a lashing. I rarely go emo but now is not a good time to agitate me.

Will just blame it on myself for now being explicit enough. Now I know. Don't take the drivers for granted. Sometimes clear things are just not clear enough.

For the record, I cab between Pasir Ris and suntec very often, ECP is definitely the most efficient route regardless of a traffic jam on PIE.

Paid $16 to get from Suntec to Paya Lebar.

!@*$#

Just hope you will never receive a sunrise photo from me.

$%#&

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F will the the word of the week.

I still believe in sine curves.

It is all a cycle.

Off to KL

Its 5.45am. I have not slept yet. This was the plan. My coach to KL leaves at 7.30. It will be too risky to take any power nap so I had to bear with it first and sleep all I want on the coach.

Will be in KL this weekend for the Malaysian Yo-yo Championships. Hakim will help to look after the shop. Thanks Hakim!

//
Didn't want to bring my camera along initially but I am just too used to having it with me all the time as it was during the Taiwan trip.

Will be back on Monday.

Taiwan After Thoughts

Just closed my Taiwan trip account.
SQ Air tickets (return) - $694
Accommodation - $221
Shopping - $53
Entertainment - $168
Food - $289
Gadget - $67
Gifts - $254
Hobby - $92
Misc - $35
Transport - $496

Total Expenses - $2370

Worth it? I guess so. This is my first official holiday trip in a long while so I can't make a comparison. I would say the cost is justifiable. We didn't spend exorbitantly on food in restaurants, mostly on street food and trying new stuff.

We met most of our objectives set prior to this trip:
Taipei
- Visit Taipei 101
- Visit Room18
- Visit Ximending
- Visit Fisherman's wharf
- Visit Danshui
- Visit Shilin night market
- Visit Living Mall

Chiayi
- Visit Alishan

Hualien
- Visit Taroko Gorge
- wide water rafting (removed due to time constraint)
- Dolphin / Whale watching

Orchid Island
- dive (cancelled due to full bookings)

The above was very general and because it was our first time, we can only rely on lonely planet and friends who have been to Taiwan recently to set those goals. I like to squeeze the most out of a trip and I am glad that I did.

These are the additional tasks that were unplanned but worth noting:
- send a postcard back from Taiwan
- See the white tree in TIT Diamond building (Ximending)
- Familiarise their MRT system
- Night market BB gun games
- Visit City Jungle (Shilin)
- Watch their TV shows
- Pirated version of Ripley's believe it or not
- watch sunrises and sunsets
- basketball arcade
- take a domestic flight
- bullet train
- Railway
- Stone lake (hualien)
- Set off fireworks
- Baseball batting centre
- chill at alishan's starbucks, the highest in Asia
- Forest Railway (Alishan)
- Yu Shan
- trek bamboo slopes trial (Feng Qi Hu)
- Old street (Feng Qi Hu)
- CKS Memorial Hall
- ride in a propeller plane
- tried all modes of modern transport (scooter, car, ferry, plane)

Green Island!!
- dive
- snorkel
- ride a schooter
- visit oasis village
- natural saltwater hot spring

Food to try:
- Try out different items in common fast food restaurants
- KFC egg tarts
- Try different beverages
- instant noodles
- Lu rou fan
- different sausages
- Mister Donut
- Eat and chill at Dunkin Donuts
- fried mushrooms
- mango shaved ice
- prata
- yakitori
- fried stuff
- guo tie
- Lu wei
- Xian Shui Ji
- Beer flavour green tea
- Lunchbox meals
- Zeng Ji Mo chi
- Wild boar sausage
- Chong You Bing
- Ah Chung Mian Xian
- the unknown tea drink in Burger King

Wanted to try but no time or no chance:
- see whale
- movie at their MTV outlets
- cinema movie
- dive at Orchid Island

The trip was fun and fulfilling but no doubt tiring. My rationale was to cover as many places within one trip than to break them up into separate trips where you will end up pay more cos of the air ticket. Though I should still be going up there for their yoyo championships again, most likely I will backpack to another nearby country from there.

One of the best parts of this trip was to meet up with the Taiwanese yo-yo players. They are a great bunch of passionate people and they reminded me why I choose this career path. By just hanging out with them for a few days, I get to learn their culture, the way they speak and think. Asking them why are things like that and so on. It is a real learning experience for me and I enjoyed every bit of it. Thanks to them for being so warm and hospitable and I really appreciate their kindness.

I am still facing culture shock that it seemed common for young teens to book a motel for 2 hours. They call it "xiu si" (rest). Things got clear when we heard a lot of uncommon noises from our neighbouring room when were going out for dinner.

I am gonna miss testing different food at the night market, will pay more attention to our local pasar malams and Bugis street, it is the closest to the night market experience.

Big thanks to Isaac for putting up with me for the siong itinerary. I did warn him many times that this is not going to be a luxurious free and easy trip. It has to be an adventure otherwise it will not be worth paying for. It has to be tough at times too otherwise it will not be challenging. People there who hear of our itinerary were surprised to hear of our traveling route within such a short period. We could not have done it with compromising our budget for taking bullet train and domestic flights.

People like Mickey, Jester, Ah P, Minus, Moyo, Harry, Xiao Zhong, Jason, Chi Min, Yu Chen, Lin Kai, Ah Yong, Moonlight, Jei, Lee Min and everyone else from TWF whom I have missed out. Thank you for the experience and hope to see you at AP!

//

I sent post cards to Art Outreach / Spinworkx from Taiwan twice. The first time was from 101 tower at the observatory centre sent on the 2nd day. The second time was from Green Island on day 8. I would expect the postal service from 101 to be faster and more reliable. Art Outreach just received the card from Green Island today and the one from 101 is lost somewhere.

Back to shop

Thanks to the ladies from Art Outreach for preparing this mini welcome back banner. =)

I am overwhelmed with the amount of work to clear but I can't wait to clear them.

Taiwan Day 13 (Final Day)

19 Aug 08, my last day in Taiwan and I will be heading home in the evening. There is nothing much to do today. Biggest chore was to pack my bag, which I need to improve on. After we were done, checked out and left our luggage at the hotel's reception.

Headed out for lunch, tried Mister Donut, another popular donut joint here. It is quite unique and different from dunkin donuts. I can't compare them together, they are just different. Look at the the donut war in Sg, one open after another and they all taste about the same, except some taste a little better than the other.

An illegal photo.


Next, Ah Chung mian xian. I was never a mian xian (mee sua) fan because the whole dish retains heat for too long and it is difficult to eat. Besides, I never like the mee sua I had in Sg, they are too soggy for me. However, this Ah chung's one is different and I kinda like it. People will just buy a bowl and eat standing. This is like a must try place if you go to Taiwan.





I see this guy everyday during my entire trip. From magazines, to posters, drama serials, variety shows, etc. He pops up everywhere. Isaac did tell me he is xiao zu but I can't associate him to anything.


I've been wanting to take a photo of this tree since I saw it on my first day. It was in the night then and I told myself to go back in the day. We were too busy traveling around and I finally found time on the last day to do it. Arrived that and was framing the shot when the security told me that photography is not allowed. This shot below was an illegal shot taken when I was walking past it. Turned out quite well too. That is good enough for me.



Went back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and waited for the airport shuttle bus. The bus stops right below the hotel which is extremely convenient. You wouldn't want to walk around town lugging everything under the hot weather. It was about 35 degress in that aftenroon! We have to switch bus halfway and the whole journey to the airport took about 1 hour. Finished the last episode of Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles (Season 1) during this ride. It was a blessing to bring an ipod touch along. Watching tv shows help to kill time during long journeys.


Snack break at BK before boarding. The burgers are about the same as Sg's but they have this drink that is damn nice!!! Sounds something like sheng ling cha.


Left, that is all the Taiwan dollars that I have left, grand total of $3
Right, Isaac still have enough to get a drink from 7-11.



Last sunrise shot taken from the airplane's window. There was a better sunrise view during take off but I can't use my camera since electronic devices are prohibited during then.


It was great to be home and Zelene was my house at the right time. Gave her her gifts, bunny hair clips and hello kitty bagpack.


I'm done with my Taiwan photos!!! After filtering all the unwanted shots, I'm left with 2128 photos from these 13 days trip.